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What would you do if you had an additional $1,500 per day?
You can easily create an online shop that generates this kind of revenue with a little bit of effort and the right platform.
Shilpi Yadav's example is a great one. She quit her job and started an online clothing shop based on her Indian heritage.
The brand is now making more than half a billion dollars per year, which averages around $1,500 per person, despite all the risks.
Shopify is one of the most popular ecommerce platforms. She created her online store with Shopify. There are many options available depending on your needs.
The most important thing that stands in your way of your own success story worth $500k is choosing the right ecommerce platform for your store.
This post will discuss the main factors to consider when choosing the right platform for you. Next, we'll look at seven top choices available today.
#1 Zyro Review – The Best Web Store Setup in Minutes
There are many good ecommerce platforms available for you to launch your website store. They work best when you do a lot of planning and site construction.
Zyro makes it easy to set up an online store that is reliable and functional in no time.
Zyro is the best way to create an online store that you are proud of, whether you want to start with a small ecommerce website and grow into a bigger business.
Start by choosing one of Zyro’s templates – 30 of the more than 160 options are already optimized to build an online store. Next, add your products and make small adjustments to suit your brand style before publishing your site.
It's easy and even the most inept person can create an ecommerce website within minutes.
All other details will be taken care of by Zyro. Zyro offers a free domain and custom email for three months on all paid plans. Hostinger includes Zyro as part of their web hosting service. This means you get rock-solid web hosting at no additional cost.
But that's not all. You might be starting completely from scratch, or just creating a website for your hobby or side hustle. Zyro provides a variety of tools that will help you quickly fill in any gaps.
The refund policy generator, for example, will create a simple and easy-to-understand refund policy for your store. You can also use the AI writer for product or blog copy you can modify to suit your needs.
It's easy to get started. But what about the long-term?
Zyro is more than a web store solution that allows you to keep your website small.
You can continue iterating on your ecommerce website. Zyro's website builder is simple to use and offers a lot of customization options. You can expand your product line, create landing pages and completely redesign the look and feel of your website. There are many options to make your site stand out.
Zyro also offers a variety of ecommerce features that are more ambitious than the standard plans. You need to sell more than 100 products through your digital storefront. Upgrade to the Advanced Store plan to get up to 2,500.
The same Advanced Store plan can really boost your ecommerce business. You can add more products to your website, as well as sell subscription-based services to international customers. You can also set up your web store to send automated marketing emails to your international customers. Additionally, your ecommerce inventory can be easily listed on other channels so you can sell on Amazon, Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon.
These are just the general guidelines. Zyro's most upscale plan allows you to do a lot. Let's now get to the price.
- Zyro business (100 Products): Starting at $4.90 per Month
- Zyro online store (100 items) starting at $8.90 per Month
- Zyro Advanced Shop (2,500 Products): Starting at $15.90 per Month
The Business plan is suitable for anyone who wants to start ecommerce, or just to create a website. This plan supports more than 20 payment methods, and allows for order and inventory management.
Online Store is the next level. It allows customers to receive discounts and coupons that they can redeem on your website. There are also support for gift cards and shipping, tax management and cross-selling with Instagram and Facebook stores.
Zyro's Advanced Store Package offers many of the same features as our article, but with additional tools to optimize and grow sales. This package is less than the entry level plansof any other options. It costs just $16 per month.
If you are in a hurry or simply want to build a website quickly, Zyro is the ecommerce platform for you.
#2 — Wix Review – The Best for Flexibility, Customization
Wix is a well-known and trusted website builder. Wix also offers business plans that include ecommerce capabilities. This makes it one of the most straightforward ways to set up an online store.
Start with one of our 500+ templates, which are designed to sell out of the box. You can then customize your pages using an intuitive drag-and drop interface.
This allows you to design with incredible flexibility and virtually no learning curve.
In less than an hour you can create a customized online store. Your customers won't even be able to distinguish between your site and other industry leaders. Wix allows you to have a professional look without all the headaches.
The Wix mobile app is my favorite. It's easy to edit your website from anywhere with just a few clicks.
The top ecommerce benefits include:
- Support for 90+ languages and local currencies
- 250+ apps to add functionality
- No extra transaction fees
- Product pages that can be fully customized
- Shipping and taxes worldwide
- Coupons and discounts
- Collections of custom products
- Recurring payments
- Advanced sorting and filters
- Checkout custom
Your Wix dashboard will also allow you to access marketing tools like email accounts or social media.
You need to sign up for the Wix Business Package in order to access ecommerce functionality.
Wix also offers pricing options and custom solutions for enterprise sellers.
BigCommerce or Shopify are better for high-volume ecommerce shops that have extensive product catalogues. Wix is better suited for small ecommerce shops.
Start Wix now for free
#3 — Squarespace Review – The Best Ecommerce Platform For Creatives
Squarespace is a well-known website builder that offers a free service, but they also offer a variety of attractive ecommerce packages.
Squarespace templates are of the highest quality. You can also customize them to create unique shopping experiences for your customers.
Other platforms that are easy to use have a limited range of capabilities. Squarespace offers a lot more creative freedom.
To find the one that you like most, install and customize multiple templates at once. It takes only a few clicks to switch between templates.
Squarespace offers web store plans that include beautiful templates as well as:
- Subscriptions, digital products and in-person compatibility
- Automatic tax calculation using built-in tax tools
- Gift cards and discount codes
- Recovery of abandoned carts
- Mobile-optimized checkout
- Mobile store management
- Rich product listings
- Capability to view quickly
- Inventory management
- Real-time shipping estimates
Squarespace also integrates with many popular social media and email marketing platforms, so you can market and sell your products like a pro.
They offer excellent customer service that is available 24/7/365 to answer all your questions and assist you in getting things setup the way you want.
Squarespace offers three plans for ecommerce:
- Business — $18/month + 3% transaction fee
- Basic Commerce — $26 per Month + 0% transaction fees
- Advanced Commerce — $40 per Month + 0% Transaction Fees
You'll find a Personal plan starting at $12 per month when you look through their pricing options. This plan is ideal if your goal is to create a website. However, it does not include any ecommerce features so it won't work for setting up an online shop.
You can also get an enterprise plan, a dedicated account manager, and priority technical support.
While the Business plan does offer ecommerce capabilities I recommend starting with Basic Commerce. This plan is the most affordable and has no transaction fees. It also includes essential features such as customer accounts, ecommerce analytics, and customer accounts.
Squarespace offers more information and a way to get started.
#4 — Bluehost Review – The Best WooCommerce Store Setup
WooCommerce is my favorite. I love WooCommerce. Fortunately, WordPress is easy enough for me to install, customize and manage it on my WordPress site.
However, I know of many people who prefer not to have this responsibility. This could be because they aren't familiar with WordPress plugins or simply don't have the time or desire to manage WooCommerce themselves.
Bluehost understands that too. That's why they have a simple, turnkey solution for getting WooCommerce stores up and running in no-time.
Bluehost's WooCommerce package includes a helpful guided store creation, as well:
- Security features: Jetpack and SSL built-in
- Unlimitless product listings
- Payment processing
- Customer reviews
- Coupon codes
- Manual order creation
- CodeGuard Backup Basic is available for one year without any additional charges. Daily site backups are possible.
The Standard Plan includes all of this. It protects all information, including login credentials and credit card numbers, from hackers. Bluehost is easy to use. However, it can be more difficult if your host does not manage SSL certificates.
Bluehost has chosen the 20 most important WooCommerce plugins. This is what I find to be the most convenient. This saves you the time and effort of searching for and installing plugins yourself .
That's huge. These plugins can be as much as $200 per installation.
You can also upgrade to the Premium plan, and get:
- Online appointment scheduling
- Ecommerce subscription-based
- Advanced product customization
- Management of local taxes
- No cost domain privacy
- CodeGuard Backup Basic is included free of charge
Pricing is determined based upon your initial term commitment. You can choose from monthly billing, a one year contract or a three year contract.
Standard plans start at $12.95/month with a 3-year commitment. Premium plans start at $24.95/month.
Both plans renew at the standard month-to-month rate after the term is completed–$29.95/month for Standard and $49.95/month for Premium.
Bluehost is the best place to start a WooCommerce shop.
#5 BigCommerce Review — The Best Medium-To-Large Stores
BigCommerce is an all in one ecommerce website builder designed for large online shops. This ecommerce platform offers advanced features that allow you to manage large volumes of products and multiple products.
They are a small player in the industry, with a customer base of more than 100,000 stores, including big names like SkullCandy and Ben & Jerry's.
However, this doesn't mean that the platform is less powerful.
BigCommerce plans offer powerful and industry-leading features such as:
- Customers accounts allow for quicker checkouts
- Mobile-optimized checkout
- Recovery of abandoned carts
- Google AMP, Akamai
- Advanced product filters
- Discount codes and coupons
- Advanced inventory management
- Customer groups for personalized shopping
- 65+ payment gateways available with no additional transaction fees
- Shipment management built-in
All plans come with unlimited files storage, bandwidth, and staff accounts.
You can also choose from 12 mobile-responsive templates or a paid template to make sure your online store stands out from the rest.
BigCommerce offers four plans with a free 15-day trial.
- Standard — $29.95/month, with a limit of $50,000 in annual sales
- Plus: $79.95/month, $180,000 annual sales limit
- Pro — $299.95/month, with a $400,000 annual limit
- Pricing for Enterprises
BigCommerce is not the right choice for an online store if you are just starting out. It's a great choice if your business is established or you plan to sell large volumes.
#6 — Shopify Review – The Best All-In One Ecommerce Platform
Shopify is an all in one ecommerce website builder. It powers over one million online shops, making it one the most popular options on this list.
It is not as customizable as Wix. It's specifically designed to host online shops, so it has more advanced ecommerce capabilities. It's also easy to use and offers just the right amount of flexibility.
It is also extremely versatile and can power everything from small to large stores to all sizes. Shopify plans offer access to an amazing suite of ecommerce features including:
- Point of sale for brick and mortar shops
- Real-time carrier shipping rates
- Recovery of abandoned checkout
- 100 different payment gateways
- Automated tax calculation
- Profiles and customer accounts
- Fulfillment centers
- Advanced inventory management
- Unlimitted products
- Analytics in-depth
You can also create beautiful, functional ecommerce stores without needing to start from scratch with 70+ themes (nine are free). Or, you can just write one line of code.
This is combined with the award-winning 24/7/365 customer service and you get an outstanding ecommerce platform.
Shopify offers five plans to businesses of any size, including:
- Shopify Lite — $9 per month
- Basic Shopify — $29/month
- Shopify — $79 per month
- Advanced Shopify — $299 per Month
- Shopify Plus — custom pricing
Shopify Lite can be used to embed products or “buy” buttons on an existing website. It doesn't include the full-featured website builder.
Shopify uses its own payment processor. They charge between 2.4% and 2.9% plus $0.30, depending on which plan you choose. You may also be charged additional fees (0.5%-2%) if you use another payment processor such as Square or PayPal.
#7 — WooCommerce Review — The Best WordPress Websites
Your ecommerce store doesn't have to be run by a generic website builder. WooCommerce is the best tool for selling online if you are serious about it.
This plugin for WordPress adds ecommerce features such as accepting online payments, configurable shipping options and product listings to your website. This is just the beginning.
WooCommerce can be integrated with many other business tools and is extensible. You can customize it with extensions that allow you to add categories such as inventory, shipping, fulfillment, marketing, customer loyalty programs and live chat support.
Like many other WordPress tools, the platform is easy to use by developers. You can use REST API to customize WooCommerce according to your requirements using custom coding and modules.
Are you still not sold? You might be interested in some other features that are included with your vehicle.
- 140 regional payment gateways
- Subscriptions and deposits support
- Automated tax calculation
- Shipping rates in real-time
- Mobile apps for iOS and Android
- Capability to produce physical and digital products
- There are endless product variations
- Numerous tutorials and documentation
- Forum for public support
The best part? It's completely free to download, install and use. Forever.
Some extensions may not be free so make sure you are aware of that before you begin digging.
WordPress is a powerful tool that allows you to customize almost anything. WooCommerce is truly limitless.
It's not the most intuitive or user-friendly ecommerce platform. If you don't know WordPress well enough, I wouldn't recommend it.
#8 OpenCart Review – The Best Digital Products
OpenCart, a similar open-source ecommerce platform to WooCommerce, is another. It's not restricted to WordPress websites. To use it, you will need an existing website.
OpenCart is used by over 300,000 online shops to sell products in all sizes and shapes online. It's also very easy to set it up. Most web hosting companies provide one-click installation.
I recommend this route only if you have a website already up and running.
You can sell any product, but the simple interface and free price tag make it an excellent choice for digital products. This will allow you to make more money from your online business.
It's free forever, so there is no monthly cost.
OpenCart has a wide range of powerful ecommerce features.
- Simple, central admin dashboard
- Access controls and advanced user roles
- Multiple stores can be managed from one dashboard
- There are many product variations and variables available.
- Integral rewards and management system for affiliates
- Coupons and discounts
- Unlimitted products
- One-click digital downloads
- Ratings and product information
- 36 payment methods with built-in payments
- Recurring payments
You can also add any functionality to the marketplace with over 13,000 themes and modules. This includes service integrations and conversion modules.
OpenCart extensions may not be free. For more advanced capabilities, you may need to pay.
They don't offer free support at the moment.
You can pay for dedicated support if you don't find the answer you are looking for in their community forum. For $99 per site, or $99 for a single fix, dedicated support is available.
#9 — Ecwid Review – The Best to Integrate With Your Current Platform
Ecwid, like WooCommerce and OpenCart, is an ecommerce platform that you can integrate with any existing platform.
It can integrate with platforms such as Wix, WordPress and Squarespace. Ecwid is a great choice if you have an existing website and wish to add ecommerce functionality.
If you're looking to build a website from scratch, they offer an all-in one ecommerce website creator. There are other website builders that you can use.
Ecwid is recommended only if you are looking to integrate ecommerce on your existing site.
The ecommerce platform offers a variety of features such as:
- Multi-channel selling (social media, marketplaces, in-person, etc.)
- Email marketing and advertising integrated
- Order management and inventory centralization
- There are no transaction fees
- Fully responsive designs
- Integrations with POS built-in
- Customers accounts allow for simple checkout
- Shipping rate calculator in real-time
- Variations of Poduct
- Digital product capabilities
- There are 40 payment options
You can't manage your shop from your website dashboard. This is the biggest problem. Instead, you will need to log into Ecwid. You will need to manage two accounts.
The good news is that the plan can be used to test it before you make any investment.
You can only have ten products on the free plan, so upgrade if you require more. Ecwid offers three paid plans:
- Venture — $15/month (upto 100 products)
- $35/month for business (up to 2,500 products).
- Unlimited — $99/month (unlimited Products)
This price is for monthly payments. The price will be slightly lower if you're willing to sign a long-term contract.
You might be more successful as a standalone store builder with the help of other options, such as Shopify and Wix.
Ecwid can be used to create an ecommerce store if you have a website.
What I Did to Find the Best Ecommerce Platform
Many factors influence the best ecommerce platform. These include your level of experience, your customization needs, and what products you are selling.
It can be overwhelming to pick the right platform because there are so many options.
You might start by making a list of your requirements and the features that you require. The following criteria will help you narrow down your options.
Digital Products vs Physical Products
Digital products are a growing market. Digital products are generating tons of money for new businesses. These include online courses, music, art and podcasts.
Selling and delivering digital products to people is not the same thing as delivering physical products to their doorsteps.
Shopify is an excellent option if you are looking to sell digital products. However, some ecommerce platforms may not allow digital products. Before you decide which product you want to sell, it is important to fully understand the differences.
Deployment Options
What are the steps to get your ecommerce website up and running?
There are many ways to deploy your platform, depending on where you're at the moment and where you want it to go.
Integrating an online store is better than creating a new website on a different platform if you have a website. You can build on what you already have. This use-case is perfect for OpenCart.
WooCommerce plugin can be used to add ecommerce functionality to WordPress sites. This plugin is easy to install and manage.
You will need a website builder if you are starting from scratch.
Squarespace and Wix make sense in this instance. You get everything you need at an affordable price.
Day to-to-Day Management
Important aspects of day-today ecommerce management include order management, product creation, tracking orders and dashboard navigation.
You want a platform that is easy to use and maintain on a daily basis. It shouldn't be difficult to create new products or check the status of an existing order.
It is all about finding the perfect balance between flexibility, customization, ease of use. It is more difficult to manage a platform that can do more.
Choose a platform that allows you to do your job efficiently and doesn't limit your options.
Design Capabilities
Wix is one of the few ecommerce website builders that allows you to drag and drop. This means you have endless customization options. You can create it if you can think it. However, this freedom can make the platform more difficult.
The integration of other platforms into your site allows you to keep the same look and feel as your website, but with very few customization options. This is great for some users.
Others may desire more control.
Simple designs and easy-to-use interfaces are better for beginners than design flexibility.
Design is important if your brand or physical store has been established. This will allow you to create a consistent aesthetic across all touch points.
Advanced Ecommerce Features
Are you interested in being able to offer discounts and accept payments via different payment processors. Perhaps you would like to remind visitors when they leave your website and add something to their cart.
Maybe you are interested in creating customer profiles or analyzing advanced analytics.
You can also use advanced ecommerce features such as:
- Integrations for email marketing
- Recurring payments and memberships
- Discount codes and gift cards
- Payment plans or partial payments
- Fulfillment and shipping management
- Variations in product
- Categories of products
Consider what you really need and what you would like to have. You can then narrow down your choices by using your list.
Summary
It's refreshing to find an ecommerce platform that does exactly what you want. I have tried many different options over the years and am confident in my selection of the best options.
- Zyro – Best for setting up your website store in minutes
- Wix – The best for flexibility and customization
- Squarespace – The best ecommerce platform to support creatives
- Bluehost – The best for WooCommerce store setups
- BigCommerce – Great for medium to large shops
- Shopify – The best all-in-one ecommerce platform
- WooCommerce – Best for WordPress Websites
- OpenCart – Best for selling digital products
- Ecwid – The best for integration with your existing platform
Zyro is my #1 recommendation to most users. It's fast and easy to create a new website, and it's also very affordable. Wix is great for all levels of experience. Squarespace is an excellent alternative to Wix and Zyro, which are far too customizable.
BigCommerce and Shopify are great options for large-scale stores.
However, you can still use WooCommerce, OpenCart and Ecwid if you have a website. They all offer the best options depending on your needs.
Bluehost's WooCommerce Online Stores are a great choice if you have a WordPress website and need an easier way to create your WooCommerce store.
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By: Neil Patel
Title: Best E-commerce Platforms
Sourced From: neilpatel.com/blog/best-ecommerce-platforms/
Published Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2022 20:00:00 +0000
